The answer is Azure Monitor Workbooks and Azure Monitor Alerts. Azure Monitor is the foundational service that collects CPU and memory metrics from your 100 VMs via the Azure Monitor Agent, while its alerting engine evaluates the conditions—CPU over 90% for 15 minutes and available memory below 1 GB—and triggers notifications. Workbooks then provide the centralized dashboard by pulling those same metrics into customizable, real-time visualizations. On the AZ-305 exam, this tests your ability to distinguish between the data collection and visualization layers: many candidates mistakenly choose Log Analytics or Azure Dashboards, but Workbooks are specifically designed for rich, interactive reporting with live metric queries. A common trap is forgetting that Azure Monitor itself handles the alerting logic, not a separate service like Logic Apps. Memory tip: think “Alerts for triggers, Workbooks for pictures”—the alert fires the action, the workbook paints the big picture.
AZ-305 Practice Question: Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions
This AZ-305 practice question tests your understanding of design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions. Match the stated requirement to the specific cloud service, access model, or configuration option — many options are valid in isolation but not for this scenario. After answering, compare your reasoning against the explanation and wrong-answer breakdown below. Once you have made your selection, read the full explanation to reinforce the concept and understand why each distractor is designed to mislead on exam day.
Your company has an Azure subscription that contains 100 virtual machines (VMs). You are designing a monitoring solution that must meet the following requirements: - Alert when any VM's CPU usage exceeds 90% for 15 minutes. - Alert when any VM's available memory drops below 1 GB. - Provide a centralized dashboard showing real-time performance metrics for all VMs. Which TWO Azure services should you include in the solution? (Choose two.)
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Azure Monitor
Azure Monitor is the core service for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from Azure resources. It can collect CPU and memory metrics from VMs via the Azure Monitor Agent, and its alerting engine can trigger actions when CPU exceeds 90% for 15 minutes or available memory drops below 1 GB, meeting both alerting requirements.
Key principle: Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
✗
Azure Policy
Why it's wrong here
Policy is for compliance and governance, not real-time monitoring.
✗
Microsoft Sentinel
Why it's wrong here
Sentinel is for security, not VM performance monitoring.
✓
Azure Monitor
Why this is correct
Azure Monitor collects performance metrics and supports metric alerts for CPU and memory thresholds.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✓
Azure Monitor Workbooks
Why this is correct
Workbooks allow creation of custom dashboards from Azure Monitor data.
Related concept
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
✗
Azure Automation
Why it's wrong here
Automation is for process automation, not dashboards.
Common exam traps
Common exam trap: answer the scenario, not the keyword
The trap here is that candidates often confuse Azure Monitor Workbooks with Azure Dashboards or Power BI, but Workbooks are the correct service for creating a centralized, real-time performance dashboard that integrates directly with Azure Monitor alerts and metrics.
Detailed technical explanation
How to think about this question
Azure Monitor Workbooks provide a flexible canvas for creating rich, interactive dashboards that combine metrics from multiple sources, including VM performance counters. Under the hood, Workbooks use Kusto Query Language (KQL) to query Log Analytics workspaces or Azure Metrics, allowing real-time visualization of CPU and memory across all 100 VMs. A subtle behavior is that memory metrics require the guest-level monitoring agent (Azure Monitor Agent) to be installed, as host-level metrics do not include available memory by default.
KKey Concepts to Remember
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
Find the constraint that changes the correct option.
Eliminate answers that are true in general but not in this case.
TExam Day Tips
→Watch for words such as best, first, most likely and least administrative effort.
→Review why wrong options are wrong, not only why the correct option is correct.
Key takeaway
Answer the scenario, not the keyword: identify the specific constraint before choosing the most familiar-sounding option.
Real-world example
How this comes up in practice
An e-commerce site experiences heavy traffic on Black Friday and near-zero traffic during off-peak weeks. Rather than provisioning permanent large VMs, the team uses auto-scaling groups that add capacity automatically under load and reduce it overnight. Questions like this test whether you understand elasticity, availability zones, and cloud compute scaling patterns.
Related glossary terms
Concepts from this question explained
These glossary pages explain the core terms tested in this AZ-305 question in full detail.
Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — This question tests Design identity, governance, and monitoring solutions — Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer..
What is the correct answer to this question?
The correct answer is: Azure Monitor — Azure Monitor is the core service for collecting, analyzing, and acting on telemetry from Azure resources. It can collect CPU and memory metrics from VMs via the Azure Monitor Agent, and its alerting engine can trigger actions when CPU exceeds 90% for 15 minutes or available memory drops below 1 GB, meeting both alerting requirements.
What should I do if I get this AZ-305 question wrong?
Identify which exam domain this question belongs to, review the core concept, then practise similar questions from the same domain.
What is the key concept behind this question?
Read the scenario before looking for a memorised answer.
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Question Discussion
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